I thought with the upcoming release of “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” and a few more subsequent films now would be the perfect time to start a discussion thread on the galaxy far, far away.

As every day goes by I can barely contain my excitement for The Force Awakens. I hope with all that is holy that the directors they have lined up for Rogue One and Episodes VII and IX that they can treat it with the same level of tactility, imagination and craft that appears to be invested in The Force Awakens from what we’ve seen so far. The marketing has been excellent so far, teasing a lot but showing and telling very little.

I was a little sceptical when J.J. Abrams was announced to direct Episode VII. After seeing Star Trek Into Darkness and a few of his other films I can’t imagine anyone else touching it. There’s no one else that has the credentials to do it. Not even Spielberg, Nolan, Zemeckis or George Miller. Some are close, Abrams is definitely the right fit, though.

The Force Awakens is a new film, a new adventure, new characters a new story with the texture of the original trilogy allowing for new elements to be introduced that have come into play in the 30 years between this film and Episode VI. December can’t come quick enough! I discovered Star Wars through George Lucas’ prequel trilogy that was fine but now seems like an excuse to play with some of his toys and pad his bank account some more. I respect Lucas for what he did with the first film and what he went through to get that made. He was kind of past it though by 1999. I saw “The Phantom Menace” and “Revenge of the Sith” in theatres, I really liked them at the time, but they just don’t hold up as Star Wars movies. They’re good for backstory, but it kind takes away some of the mystique of characters from the original trilogy. Being a child/teenager at the time when the prequels were released didn’t rival my obsession with the original trilogy when RTE started replaying them on Saturday evenings around the same time. I recorded all of those suckers on VHS and replayed them obsessively.

I’m excited to hopefully be able to get a sense of what it was like in 1977, going into theatres watching and experiencing history being made especially with John Williams writing the music. What do you guys think? Post any Star Wars related news or musings here!

The thing for me, is that I was never into Stars Wars growing up or now. Fact is it never really was something I felt that I needed or wanted to see; sure like any person alive over the last few decades I heard of the force, lightsabers, jedis, and the sith, but I wasn't in any sort of rush to see the movies.

But things changed in 2012 when one of my roommates who owned all 6 movies got us to watch the original trilogy as part of a marathon. And I thought they were good, and Empire was great, I didn't get the new cult levels that people had for them and none were perfect movies like so many others have said, oh and Boba Fett was pretty overrated.

HOWEVER, with all that I actually am excited to see this one. I am a fan of JJ and I am looking forward to seeing his vision to kick off the reborn Star Wars Universe. The visuals look great, the effects look on point, and the vibe looks really cool. Like Batman v Superman, this movie has a ton of pressure on it to do well, seeing as the Prequels left a bad taste in so many fans mouths. I think the movie will do well, hell the Prequels made bank, and I think this will be a proper introduction for a lot of fans to Star Wars and maybe it will get me into the franchise.

I see what you mean Slim, everyone needs the right entry point. I was the same with The Lord of the Rings, I eventually conquered that uneasy trepidation of diving into it. That's why the Force Awakens will hopefully be such a seminal film. It's not about making a good movie, it's about introducing the universe to a new generation of moviegoers, that it might spark the interest of people that had never cared up until that point.

The originals were incredibly inspired pieces of work, that became a unique phenomenon that sparked and fueled the imagination of millions. George Lucas did an incredible job with the first one of creating a Space Opera Adventure shot like and with the structure of an Akira Kurosawa movie that tapped into allegories like the eastern philosophies of the samurai juxtaposed with the fall of the Roman Empire wrapped in the symbolic propaganda of the Nazi war machine. It was a narrative that was compelling, well realised and felt organic with it's own identity. You can sense the creative inspiration that drove Lucas to capture that. The problem was the prequels just didn't have that level of inspiration or vision.

I've read about 50 Star Wars novels; there is an entire "expanded universe" of the next 50 years (or more) of what happens to all the characters after The Return of the Jedi.

I've been led to believe the new movie will abandon all that and go in other directions. I get a bit dissapointed when they do that. It will need to be a really great story to overcome some of my pre-existing story notions from the novels.

I understand what you're saying Mafwanix. I don't think anything from the EU is being totally abandoned, from some guesswork it can be assumed that some things that were relevant in the EU are still going to be brought to the fore in the new trilogy. Some EU stuff will be there just presented in a new way.

The way I see it Star Wars is a primarily a film series. The fact that certain authors improvised what they imagine would have happened in the universe is something I don't find intriguing or relevant. The Force Unleashed game for instance, was fun, but wasn't something that I took seriously as real events within the canon. That's not to say that there isn't some non-film material that Lucasfilm consider canon but that's ultimately for them to decide.

It is completely justified that Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan don't want to be encumbered by material that only the most radical of Star Wars fans would be familiar with. It would ruin all element of surprise to boot. Lucasfilm actually published this in the past few days about official canon. It's definitely worth a look.

More news today as more was revealed through Instagram today which means a bigger badder trailer is coming in the next few weeks. Anticipation is building nicely. One thing about the cast that bugs me slightly is John Boyega. I don't buy him as a part of the universe. I feel somewhat trepidatious as he clearly seems to be one of the focal points of the film. From what I've seen of Daisy Ridley and no doubt Oscar Isaac they seem to be able to pull it off, but I'm not so sure about Boyega. He seems to be too much of a fish out of water. I liked the opening shot of the first teaser trailer that he was in so it's not all bad. I just want to see more. Hopefully, my fears are alleviated shortly. With the latest box office projections and the fact that it will be occupying all iMax theatres for a solid month, perhaps more one can feel a genuine buzz in the air about it. With the marketing Lucasfilm know they've got your money. They need only tease you.

That's quite the question you pose Stigsy. Life is full of an infinity of possibilities. JJ Abrams hasn't made a bad movie yet in my book. That opening shot from trailer 2 was probably more impressive that the entire running time of a lot of movies this year. Things are looking good.

The moment of release is never the time for cooler heads to prevail and rightly so. I wouldn't necessarily be so quick to label both Star Wars or Star Trek as just sci-fi. Star Trek always seemed kind of perverse to me, always caught up in the trashy wishy washy overly expository dialogue that only served to bore and distract. It never let what it should have tried to have done shine through until JJ Abrams climbed aboard. Stripped it all down, made it less dorky and more FUN, exciting and interesting which was what it needed. The same thing is what's needed for Star Wars to a certain extent too even though he's starting from the back end of the chronology so the blandness of the prequels won't be too hard to overcome.

Star Trek has always been closer to the intentions of Sci-Fi, Abrams just made it more of what it needed to be. Star Wars was always more of a Western in space with a lot of other influences sprinkled in. To answer your question, Stigsy Star Trek is more strictly Sci-Fi than Star Wars. They're not cut from the same cloth and have very different intentions. Abrams by bringing them closer together by making them his own has redefined them in significant ways and for the better I hope. I can only speak for Star Trek. In the years ahead I hope that he is properly recognised if he pulls it off with Star Wars. Tell me that's not a massive achievement? He did it with Mission Impossible too. Like it or not what he's done requires a lot of hard work and talent.

I haven't been here much lately, and was catching up on the thread, so sorry this reply is a little late. I hope this doesn't come across too stupid sounding.

eobversion1 wrote:I’m excited to hopefully be able to get a sense of what it was like in 1977, going into theatres watching and experiencing history being made especially with John Williams writing the music. What do you guys think?

I can tell you what it was like in 1977. I was there, and it was NOT what you might think. I saw Star Wars in the cinema, opening night. I was kinda eager to see it, because I had been reading sci fi stories for a good part of my youth, so I was a "fan". But the general atmosphere was about what you'd expect for any other film that wasn't promoted as a major blockbuster. Which it was not. There were no big name, well known stars in the cast, and the advertising was somewhat minimal. I pretty much expected to see a "B" grade SF movie typical of the period, and suspected much of the crowd was slightly less enthusiastic. It wasn't even very crowded. Once you got in the theatre, it was your typical run of trailers and badly scratched cartoons promoting the snack bar; nothing to get excited over. At least no commercials in those days. Then the movie started.

The first 10 minutes had everybody completely absorbed. To this day, I still believe the opening scene in Star Wars is one of the greatest, ever. The booming musical score leading into the shot of the Star Destroyer coming into the scene; it seemed to go on forever. This was something no one had ever seen before. That was what got the audience hooked.

The movie ended in a very upbeat way, the good guys won!, Everybody felt good going home that night. It was the word of mouth that turned it into a phenomenom. Cinema's would continuously play a popular movie for months back then. In short time, it was playing for the $1 matinee, so everyone got to see it sooner or later after hearing about it. And of course, the promotional toy tie-ins ramped up after the film played for a while.

I must say, on that first viewing, I was very impressed by the special effects, but I thought the movie was just OK overall. It was the space ships and how they were photographed to look so realistic (by the standards of the time) that was my favorite part. I wasn't all that impressed with the story. A local TV station regularly showed old movie serials from the 1930's and 40's, and it seemed to me this was a more modernized version of the typical Flash Gorden or Buck Rodgers sort of story. I also thought most of the droid interaction was rather junvenile. One thing everybody thought was partcularly cool, was the way the opening titles scrolled into infinity, called "slit scan". There were magazine articles about how that was done, and it was a challange many amateur filmakers tried to duplicate (digital FX were still about 15 years away). Turns out that was used in Flash Gorden, too.

So, really, there was wasn't all that much excitement for the opening of the original Star Wars, at least where I went to see it. Now, Empire Strikes Back, that's a different story.The pre-show anticipation for the upcoming movie is probably far greater, right now, than it ever was for the original. IMHO.

Interesting perspective Mafwanix. Thank you for sharing it. Empire Strikes Back is definitely my favourite. I'm surprised it didn't do as well at the box office than the original. I suppose history can turn certain events and people into iconography. There's a now famous picture of hoards of people outside the Chinese theatre in LA queuing for Star Wars. It was such a big film and I had seen it and it's sequels so many times that I can't take it out of context between it Empire and Jedi. The mythology was so grand before I ever came to it so maybe it was just easier for me and latter-day fans to be completely enamoured by it. It's still a great movie. After all these years watching other great film that and the other two are just ones that hold up and have stuck with me. It was truly A New Hope and I sure do feel a lot of hope thinking about it.

There was some controversy here about Rian Johnson filming scenes from Episode XIII on Sceilig Mhichíl in the coming week. In late July/Early August last year, JJ Abrams was also there filming for The Force Awakens. The main reason is that some claim that filming would disrupt the Ecosystem on the Island and upset the mating and migratory patterns of the indigenous bird populations of the island.

This kind of political pestering is typical in Ireland. Extrapolate something into a problem to give yourself an inflated sense of importance. I'm no wildlife expert, but I'm sure the puffins who are well used to large numbers of tourists coming in and out every day won't be too put out by a film crew of the same size shooting there instead. It's pretty much a nationwide if you think you're somewhat upper-class highlight some sort of social issue that probably doesn't directly affect you and start mouthing off about it in the hope that someone will listen.If they were they were there for a few weeks or months instead of days they might have a point but they just don't. It's four or five days of filming every year or two. It's not a big deal.

It's only natural as to why LucasFilm would want to film there now. The Autumn is setting in, the opportunities for really doing the film and the landscape justice is dwindling. The Island is also the perfect place to infuse the film with a sense of purpose or meaning instead of a typical sterile soundstage production.

Did this kind of this happen when The Quiet Man or Ryan's Daughter was filming in and around the same area? Of course not. I've been to Kerry many times, It's one of the most beautiful parts of the country and people want to keep it away from a large audience. Only in Ireland.

Advanced ticket sales are monstrous! At least on this side of the pond. Cinema websites have been crashing left and right. I got some decent seats at a local iMax knockoff. Don't mind though. We'll also be getting a new trailer tonight. Massively looking forward to it.

I could never articulate how pumped I am. There’s new worlds, a new story, a new visual language and with the spirit of the old films intact. The title itself could be genius, the awakening of a mythology even if the characters themselves don’t know what it is or why it has chosen them relying on those that have lived through it for guidance. Withholding the Luke Skywalker reveal in the poster or this trailer was a very clever move. The pressure is now on JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm to deliver the movie they promised they would make. They’ve certainly nailed generating a buzz for the ages.

The actors are a bit excited too. I haven't booked tickets in advance for a movie ever in my life, but trying to get a group of friends together for star wars. I can't take a chance of dicks spoiling details on social media.

"My favourite spot is the one where I would pick him up for an aeroplane spin and rotate as many times as possible. He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won - Daniel Bryan

I saw those, very nice. Even the actors don't know what's really coming. They might have a rough idea, they just don't know what it's going to end up as.

I too am skeptical about booking tickets that far in advance, but the simple truth is that I'm probably going to end up using them no matter what the contingency. Seeing it as soon as possible upon release is an absolute must. I couldn't imagine sitting down spending Christmas not having seen The Force Awakens.